Article
Analysing Budget 2024 from the lens of Ease of Doing Business
By Noorul Hassan and Aman Gupta
Out of ten parameters of Ease of Doing Business introduced by the World Bank, this fiscal the Union Budget has focused on a certain few namely, starting a business, getting credit, paying taxes, resolving insolvency, and to an extent registering property. The article in this issue of Corporate Amicus analyses the Budget proposals and discusses changes relating to attracting foreign investments, benefits proposed in tax regime, evolution in insolvency resolution, flexible company structures, credit enhancement to MSMEs, easy exits to companies, decriminalisation of offences, and proposal to incentivize states if they lower the stamp duty rates. According to the authors, there are still certain parameters where we need to improve.
Notifications and Circulars
- Form MGT-6 of the Companies (Management and Administration) Rules, 2014 amended
- E-form BEN-2 of the Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Rules, 2018 amended
- Payment to MSEs – Specified Companies (Furnishing of information about payment to micro and small enterprise suppliers) Order, 2019 amended
- Directors to update their details by 30 September – Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014 amended
- Nidhi companies not required to use ‘Nidhi’, subject to conditions – Companies (Incorporation Rules) 2013 amended
- Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (Accounting, Audit, Transfer and Refund) Rules, 2016 amended
- Master Direction on Priority Sector Lending amended
- SEBI (Foreign Portfolio Investors) Regulations, 2019 amended
- Facility for Basic Services Demat Account for Financial Inclusion and Ease of Investing – SEBI circular
- Information to be filed by schemes of AIFs availing dissolution period/additional liquidation period and conditions for in-specie distribution of assets of AIFs – SEBI Circular
- Remittances to International Financial Services Centres under Liberalised Remittance Scheme – RBI Circular
Ratio decidendi
- Properties not acquired through ‘Proceeds of Crime’ cannot be subject to attachment under PMLA – Kerala High Court
- A force majeure event does not justify retention of Performance Bank Guarantee without suffering a legal injury – Delhi High Court
- Legal heirs of a deceased, who was party to an arbitration agreement, are classified as ‘Legal Representatives’ under Arbitration Section 2(1)(g) – Telangana High Court
- Application for termination of the Arbitrator’s mandate should be filed with the District Court, not the High Court – Telangana High Court
News Nuggets
- Employment linked incentive schemes introduced
- Budget 2024-25 provides the much-needed push to MSMEs
- Angel tax abolished
- MCA mandates companies to disclose biannually their dealings with MSMEs
- MeitY considers proposing to exclude ex-ante measures from the Digital Competition Bill
- FSSAI mulls mandating labelling of certain nutritional information in bigger and bolder fonts
- CCI to shortly introduce revised norms under the competition rules
- Telangana eyes at having its first MSME oriented policy
- SEBI considering relaxing certain disclosure norms for listed entities
